Which Coolpix for dive/backup?

[Zephrant]

I've decided that I can't afford a housing for my D80, and my wife really wants a point-n-shoot.

I'd like to stay Nikon, but they have somewhere around a hundred point-n-shoots.

Considering that I'll have the D80 on land, what features do I look for in the dive camera?

The S10 looks nice, as it has bigger glass, but the strange format means that I've not found a housing for it yet. The VR and 10X zoom would be nice though. The flash next to the lens is strange though- but not an issue if I use a strobe.

The L5 looks to be a decent 7M camera ($190). Standard format, so of course ikelite has a housing for it ($280). I did notice one post that claimed 3+ seconds between shots though, and that would really annoy me.


Anyone have a Coolpix as a backup/dive camera that they are happy with?

 

[randini]

Ok, it's not a backup, it's my only camera, but I recently opted for a P3 ($265 @ beach camera) + the fantasea housing ($170 from Jack Connick). The reason is that it is the only coolpix in their current lineup that offers some manual controls (this and it's wifi-less twin the P4). I havn't actually got it yet (it arrives on wednesday) so I can't comment on it otherwise. I did play with one in a nikon store before buying though and found that it felt incredibly well built.

Nikon did recently announce the Coolpix P5000 that has the full set of maual controls + a hotshoe and will be available later in march w/ a MSRP of $400.

 

[JackConnick]

Yes, Randy, your housing should be whiling it's way to you, via your friend (brother?)! Appreciate your business, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

The P4 is an amazing camera for the money. Fantasea Line's housing for it is very nice and allows for most all the controls to be used (unlike some of the older housings). I think the P5000 will be a camera that is "in-between" that and a DSLR.

It has an amazing amount of great features and a hotshoe, which will allow for a strobe connection with full i-TTL with an SB-800 Nikon strobe. 10MP, enhanced vibration reduction, and lots more.

About the only things I saw which weren't quite as good as a P4 is the lens being only 36mm and macro distance a little larger. The current crop does macro down to 4cm, making a macro lens unnecessary.

I'm a big proponent of RAW, but it seems that all the manfts new digicams don't have it.

I am told that Fantasea has a housing well into the development stages and that an product announcement should be soon. What's that; PMA is this week? Hmmm.

It will probably be a couple of months or so before any new housings are out for it, so in answer to the original poster; a P3/P4 now or a P5000 later.

Jack

 

[Zephrant]

Thanks for the comments all- the 1.8fps (as per dpreview) on the P3 sounds far, far better to me. I'll go read their review on it.

So on dpreview, the only difference between the P3/P4 is that the P3 has wifi, and the P4 has more pixels in the LCD?

You may be getting an email soon Jack- Thanks!

Brent

 

[randini]

@Jack: Thanks a lot man. The Canada Post tracking system said it was delivered last thursday & an email from my friend confirmed that "stuff had arrived". Now I'm just waiting for the coyote to bring it to me in Chile (he arrives on wednesday). I've already got the first boat trip & dives planned for it on thursday & friday (assuming the predicted small craft advisory dies down).

@Zephrant: Both cameras (the P3 and P4) are identical except for the wifi, they both have the same LCD. I ended up going with the P3 becasue it was about $30 less expensive than the P4 (I guess since all the reviews suggest to "save yourself $50 and get the P4 if you won't need the wifi" has affected the street price more heavily on the P3).

I'll be glad post my impressions near the end of the week if you're interested.

 

[Zephrant]

That's be great- I look forward to your report.

dpreview claims the wifi is dog slow- 1/2 hour to move 1/2 G flash, and it chews on the batteries too.
If I've got to plug it in to prevent battery drain, I might as well pull the card and use a flash reader.

 

[randini]

Just got it yesterday & haven't had a chance to get it in the water yet. So far I'm loving this camera. The controls for adjusting IQ, WB and ISO are very acessible. Each one has a position on the main dial so you just pop it over to to the one you want to adjust and use the up down to make selection. Doing a custom WB is a matter of turing it to WB, pushing down once, OK, down once. ok, wait about 1/2 sec and it's done, you dialit back to P or A and start shooting. ISO is even easier, since you just turn it to ISO and use the up/down arrows to select it and then hit OK.

The camera itself does take quick pictures once the focus & exposure are set. It really seems to have a practical set of features (for example it will do bracketing & you can turn the in camera sharpening off if you prefer post processing), but I have het to start playing with them all.

The wifi seems like a cool feature to be able to DL pics off the camera without having to open the housing on a multiple dive boat trip. It wasn't nearly as hard to set up as some reviewers made it out to be. But then I've set up several networks in the past, so apart from doing it with a camera this was nothing new for me. The transfer rate is SLLOOW. It took about 10 sec per pic at fine resolution (8Mp). Looks like I'll be sticking with the SD card reader in my laptop.

The controls on the Fantasea housing do take some getting used to. But I imagine that's the case with any housing, especially for someone that's never had one before (like me). I can't comment much else on it right now, as I just got the camera yesterday and was getting used to wit while walking around Santiago, so I didn't want to bring the housing with me.

I'm waiting for some colleagues to show up to see if we're going out today or not. If so, I hope to have have my first UW shots to show this evening. If not, it'll be couple of days. In the meantime, I did take this shot in a converted train station yesterday and I like the way it came out. If I figure out how to put it in my gallery I'll post the full resolution version. In the meantime here's a reduced res one that I was able to host elsewhere:

 

[randini]

Update: I haven't been able to take the setup diving yet. Yesterday'& today's trips were cancelled. If the swell prediction for this weekend is wrong I'll try and go out then and get some shots.

Also, the housing is a lot easier to use now that I've RTFM. The Fantasea housing does get you complete access to all the controls except the on/off button.

 

[JackConnick]

Randy;

I've been playing with an FP4 housing too. Their solution to the ubiquitous "4 position rocker wheel switch" is to use two controls one you swing around to access the wheel, one you swing into to hit the ok button. It is a bit awkward at first, but I like you got used to it fairly quickly. I'm telling customers to maybe add a dot off a paint marker to the button on the outside that will show them where the arm is inside to help speed things up.

There really isn't a great solution for these small wheel-switches, my last housing had dedicated buttons, but they were too close together to use without pressing two at the same time.

As to the on/off switch, there actually is a camera setting where if you leave it on it goes to sleep, and after a preset time, it will go into deep sleep, really shuts off. Put the camera to sleep (really, just euthianize it). Load it up, then all you do is hold down the little triangle button for a couple secs to wake it up very quickly. It's actually faster than the on/off switch.

Housing manual is here with all the info: FP-4 Manual

Jack

 

[randini]

Jack,
Thanks for everything. There was a printed manual in the box with the housing. The controls were easy to get the hang of once I actual read it (what I meant by "once I RTFM") & within a couple of minutes I had it down. Good idea about the dab of paint on the OK button rocker. I think I'll do just that and maybe even add some dots for the positions for the other rocker while I'm at it.

The manual mentions setting the camera to not turn off. I've found the settings and was planning on making that adjustment when I actually take it diving. Good call on the "sleep" option though (I hadn't found that one yet). I'll check that out as well.